The mayor who opposes congestion pricing, treats parking placards as political currency, and has declared war on electric bikes wants you to know that he's taking Big Oil to court over climate change.

Mayor de Blasio — who opposes congestion pricing, treats parking placards as political currency, and has declared war on electric bikes — is taking Big Oil to court over climate change.

Today de Blasio announced that NYC will sue the country’s five biggest oil producers “alleging climate change and global warming led to Hurricane Sandy and its catastrophic fallout,” Politico reports. The suit will seek “reparations” and attempt to force the companies to pay for city resiliency projects.

De Blasio also called for city pension funds to divest from oil companies.

It’s well established that de Blasio fancies himself a climate change leader. But publicity stunts like today’s, designed to burnish his bona fides for a perceived national audience, are completely out of sync with the mayor’s own transportation policies.

De Blasio has tied himself in knots to justify his opposition to road pricing, which would get cars off city streets, fund transit improvements, and generally help shift the nation’s largest city to low-carbon transportation. Instead, his big plan to bust Midtown gridlock is a rehash of failed half-measures that would do nothing to discourage driving into the Manhattan core.

To the delight of the teachers union, de Blasio handed out tens of thousands of parking placards in an election year, creating yet more inducements to drive instead of taking transit. City Hall has declined to release records related to how and why the placard deal came about.

De Blasio’s grandstanding today is sure to make headlines. But his posture as a bold leader on climate has little in common with his timid policy record.

If you wish to overlook this blatant act of intimidation by armed thugs against an elected leader, and to ignore the very real potential for instigation of violence against that elected leader on the part of these thugs’ apologists, then that is your prerogative.

cjstephens

I’m certainly not one to make excuses for the NYPD, but your gross over-reaction to that protest (at a police funeral, you may wish to recall), makes you looked more unhinged than the NYPD itself.

Emmy Lors

Typical democrat all talk no action which explains why they lost the congress and WH.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Between them, Cuomo and de Blasio have the power to dramatically accelerate New York City's progress on climate goals. But doing so will require making policy choices that the governor and mayor have shirked or avoided so far.

Mayor de Blasio's forthcoming congestion plan won't call for traffic pricing, but the mayor has plenty of other options to reduce traffic congestion. Here are four policies that would provide much-needed congestion relief on NYC streets -- it's difficult to imagine any City Hall traffic reduction initiative that doesn't include some of these ideas.

Mayor de Blasio doesn't see a problem with issuing tens of thousands of new parking placards to teachers and other school workers. His assertion runs contrary to years of documented evidence and the daily observations that pile up on Twitter -- a city placard is a license to park anywhere without fear of getting a ticket.

Other New Yorkers have to lose time with their families because their bus home moves at walking speed. It's a different city than the one the mayor experiences, ferried from place to place by police escort, conducting business in the backseat of an SUV.